Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings (2011)

Here's the full-length album by Cloud Nothings, which is a follow-up a few EPs. Cloud Nothings is the brainchild of Cleveland's Dylan Baldi as I think I mentioned in the post for the Leave You Forever EP. I am not sure if this album will over take that EP and the prior Turning On for my fondness, but it is a rather valiant release. Quite a good balance of lo-fi psych-garage and power pop that makes for a fuzzy, upbeat bunch of melodies. Baldi's coarse vocals are especially good in contrast to the cheerful mood of the music. While it isn't enthralling me wholly, it is a solid album and it very well could grow on me over time. See what you think for yourself.

To be had here:
Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings [256 kbps]

The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World (1969)

It is getting late but I wanted to get something up for today. The best thing I could summon is a band I fond re-listen to every several weeks and love to show to friends if I can get them in a situation where they are forced to hear me ramble about music near my computer (my pal Bebop had to suffer the treatment this week). The Shaggs were a real outsider band at one point, though as time has passed they're far less obscure among music nerds and indie kids. Composed of three sister, eventually four, of the Wiggins family from New Hampshire shepherded into music by their father, the Shaggs created some real weird shit. Before they days of the punk ethos of DYI, the girls' dad "encouraged" them to make band and then record an album called Philosophy of the World without any knowledge of songwriting. This album had only an 100 copies ever come to light, though supposedly a thousand were pressed. Now, this music wasn't just misunderstood. For the time it was genuinely ridiculous in the most sincere sense of the word. These girls didn't know how to play their instruments let alone have the wherewithal for rhythm or structure. They don't even sing in harmony well. But this is the appeal of the Shaggs. They're not something that would have happened normally, and it has really made some folks scratch at their heads over the years. How did these sisters forced to make music by a strange father make something so innately enjoyable? The curious and anomalous nature of the sound this untrained group worth hearing for yourself as it as inspired many avant-garde, eccentric and experimental musicians.

To be had here:
The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World [192 kbps]

The Dead People - Withdrawel Shirt (2010)

I haven't been on the ball about album submissions lately. However, it is hard to get into the mindset to enjoy an album just because a nice musician or label operator decided to share it with me. Luckily for The Dead People, that mood has stuck me before I forgot they asked me to write about them. I use "they" liberally as this transcript of the e-mail will explain: "me and this gypsy i know made this record a little while ago. the gypsy thinks it's tripe, but i think it's ok. noisy, stupid, pop. i like your posts, and think you might like this." Not sure at all what he meant by gypsy, but he was correct that I'd like it. In fact, he does a better job at describing it than I would've. It is weird punk/noise rock, it doesn't maintain anything throughout as far as beat and mood. Jumps about like a spider seeking prey. Even has some wonderful moaning in place of singing at points. Try as I might, a good word for it is cute. A good thing for all of you is that you can listen and judge for yourselves upon visiting the bandcamp page and download it for free should you fancy.

To be had here:
The Dead People - Withdrawel Shirt

Soledad Brothers

I went up to visit my folks recently. They are still where I grew up at, in a town that's name isn't even worth mentioning. However, every time I go there I think of driving through the town in the dead of winter to get to the main county library in the next city over. Now, I've mentioned this in the blog many times, but it was my more formative time in musical understanding when hunting through those hundreds of albums. The Soledad Brothers was one of the bands that I began to listen to and then sought out at the library for every new release. The group began as Ben Swank and Johnny Walker, who's name is really the name of a previous band and Walker is the last time of a friend of his. While the band originated in Maumee, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo, they relocated to Detroit and were roommates with Jack White before the White Stripes hit it huge. White even engineered the first self-titled album. Afterward they were joined by Oliver Henry, formerly of the Greenhornes, and went on to make three more full-lengths. Beyond their sentimental connection to my adolescence and their story of actually moving to Detroit to do something, I still think they were a great band and totally worthy of being heard by fans of garage rock and blues punk. Soledad Brothers and Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move are more gospel influenced, with Walker pontificating about cars, expressways and the Cass Corridor as well as more traditional fare. Also I have a live album from 2000 entitled simply enough, Live, which features some tracks of the first release. Voice Of Treason and The Hardest Walk are unmistakably the same band yet they were put out on bigger labels and were considerably less messy and gospel-filled. I loved the messiness though, so this was a mixed bag for me, but they're very solid albums that show off the band's talents true enough. Anyhow, the more I write the more little facts and memories about them pop up so I best just cut it off, if you want more stylistic notes or true album reviews they're out there. The band has since broke-up, but Johnny Walker has a new group that I am betting I'll post soon.

To be had here:




Soledad Brothers (2000) [192 kbps]












Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move (2002) [160 kbps]













Live (2003) [160 kbps]

Voice of Treason (2003) [160 kbps]












The Hardest Walk (2006) [160 VBR kbps]

The Ding-Dongs - The Ding-Dongs (2010)

I am almost embarrassed that I just found out about this band several days ago. The Ding-Dongs, besides sharing a name with the track I enjoyed from Thee Knights of Trashe by the Milkshakes, is a collaborative effort of Montreal's Bloodshot Bill and Mark Sultan. Perhaps this is sounding familiar to regular readers, as Bloodshot Bill paired with Sultan's most frequent bandmate, King Khan, to make Tandoori Knights. It's like they're pairing off in a round robin fashion for our pleasure. The Ding-Dongs are exactly what you'd imagine coming from a project with a garage rock wizard and a rockabilly genie, very soulful and exciting music with boisterous singing about any manner of thing like female police officers and jiggling the handle in the washroom. I'm a fan for sure, and hope you're because their are other albums and collaborations from these Montreal musicians I'm hankering to share.

To be had here:
The Ding-Dongs - The Ding-Dongs [320 kbps]

Horrid Red - Empty Lungs (2010)

Horrid Red is something else. Pretty sure I saw them on a blog somewhere or another, but I just got to listening to them over the last week. Like the band that it sprouted from, Teenage Panzerkorps, Horrid Red makes dark, eerie post-punk with singing comprised of rather haunting German. While Teenage Panzerkorps is intense, big and loud this is a more subtle and focused version. Brooding and echoic the music makes the German seem otherworldly, but there is more to Empty Lungs than the spookiness and foreignness. It is a remarkably well blended new wave and kaurtrock elements that makes for a real nostalgic feel to the album. I am unsure what would motivate one to make such sounds as these, but I am sure glad someone did. Finally, it is worth noting that both Horrid Red and Teenage Panzerkorps releases are available on bandcamp for the damned fine price of five dollars, even for full-length releases.

To be had here:
Horrid Red - Empty Lungs [256 VBR kbps]

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Horse Power EP (2010)

Detroit has some real class acts coming out it these days, many in the garage rock realm such as the amazing Tyvek. However, Detroit has a rich and varied musical composition and one of the bands that I am most excited about is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. These two young fellas, Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott, who are making lovely electronic pop music that my words will not to any amount of justice to. Everyone, save one cantankerous Brit, has immediately expressed approval of this group when I have them take a listen. That's pretty rare with my esoteric tastes. Even my usual indifference toward lyrical content is challenged by this guys, as I really love the lines: "In a dream that I had, I was cool, I was truly bad. I woke up filled with fear. It went away because you were near." That is some smooth ass shit. They also did something I'd normally be tepid to endorse, a cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" as I feel it is hard to do anything with such a fantastical made song. Nonetheless, while nothing will ever outdo Wilson's original, this is an admirable cover. Last note, this EP isn't exactly free to download like most of the stuff I post is, legality be damned. However, it is cheap and is fully streamable off bandcamp, which even works on my phone's browser, so it is like being free even if you don't want to pay the $3.95 for the digital copy.

To be had here:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Horse Power EP

The Milkshakes - Thee Kinghts of Trashe (1984)

The Milkshakes, alternatively called Thee Milkshakes, were a garage rock band from England. The band was formed in 1977 with Mickey Hampshire and Banana Bertie when Billy Childish's previous band called The Pop Rivets disbanded. The group played some real righteous garage rock that was simple, catchy and well-structured. They even infuse surf rock into some of their playing as evidenced in the track called "The Ding-Dongs" along with their instrumental numbers. It is interesting to compare the British version of garage from the 80s to the American scene, like Detroit's Gories. The Gories were loud, abrasive and spontaneous but the Milkshakes seem more polished and practiced. Nonetheless they sound good as all fuck. Thee Knights of Trashe is the last album the band produced as afterward they broke out when Mickey left the band. Thereafter Childish went on to be in many influential and awesome garage bands like Thee Mighty Caesars and Thee Heatcoatees. I've listened to Childish's various bands on and off over the years, but I have always really enjoyed this album.

To be had here:
Thee Milkshakes - Thee Kinghts of Trashe [192 kbps]

Flaviola e o Bando do Sol - Flaviola e o Bando do Sol (1974)

Hope you liked that last two day's posts, because this is yet another Tropicália album. This is a release that is often cited as a Brazilian gem that is too often overlooked. Flaviola e o Bando do Sol are a few years later than the previous albums posted here, but it is absolutely in the same vein. However it does have a considerably different mood, at least as far as can be figured without knowing the lyrics. It isn't exactly the full sounding Tropicália that Caetano Veloso was attempting to make, it is far more dreamlike and psychedelic, or psicodelia in Portuguese. Less instrumentation perhaps but stranger, with one review I read stating it includes "cellophane crinkled into the microphone as percussion." The wandering guitar playing reminds me much of Bröselmaschine, a German kraut-folk outfit that I posted months ago. The latter part of Flaviola e o Bando do Sol does pick up in pace and is a bit more like Veleso and the others I've posted. The most fundamental thing it instills in me is a calm happiness, and that is always something to be sought after.

To be had here:
Flaviola e o Bando do Sol - Flaviola e o Bando do Sol [256 kbps]

Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (Tropicália) (1968)

Caetano Veloso was mentioned in yesterday's post on the Os Brazoes as a founder of the Tropicália movement. Indeed he was, and remains, one of the most famous and influential of Tropicália musicians. A contemporary of Os Mutantes and Gliberto Gil along with the brother of Brazilian singer Maria Bethânia he was poised well to make a venture into a solo musical career. He aimed high, wanting to even out do the Beatles in some regards from what I've read, and it resonated with the country of Brazil, which was experiencing a period of military dictatorship. With his songs he wished to help bring Brazil into a more international and modern musical culture, so like the other pioneers of Tropicália he infused Brazilian elements into the psychedelic rock that was popular in North American and Western Europe. The idea was to be board and flexible, able to integrate many influences into the sound. A tough job for anyone, but the brilliant Veloso pulled off a remarkable album with some of the most exciting singing and music I've ever heard, regardless of the fact that I don't even understand the lyrics. What I do know is that he work was politically charged and that got him, along with Gil, into trouble with the military government and even forced him to take a temporary exile. However, today he is still held in regard in and beyond Brazil and still is touring and making albums.

To be had here:
Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (Tropicália) [192 kbps]